The childlike appeal of Lego melded with adult ingenuity and Will Arnett’s goofy sense of humor has made “Lego Masters” a solid part of the competition show milieu in recent years.
Fox is so confident in the show, the broadcast network renewed it for a fifth season before season four even debuted last month.
The current season, shot earlier this year at Atlanta Film Studios in Hiram, doesn’t veer from a successful formula and just aired a second episode focused on kittens.
Jamie Berard and Amy Corbett are actual Lego employees who work in Denmark and come stateside each season to judge the dozen two-person teams and eliminate them one by one until one gets the $100,000 prize.
“There are definitely harder challenges this season, but they are also more surprising,” Corbett told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Zoom from Lego headquarters. “Some of the wild ideas we couldn’t get to work out seasons one and two we’ve thrown in there this season. It’s amazing how teams can find a way to tackle what we give them no matter how crazy.”
The teams include two grandmothers and a grandfather with his grandson. An early team showing promise is a mom/son combo.
“It’s extra special to see how the different generations approach Legos from different angles,” Berard said. “Their passions stem from being at different points in their lives.”
The judges say they are not great at guessing early on who might win. “We play a little game but we never quite get it,” Corbett said. “People surprise us and grow through the competition. They listen and learn. Others start super strong, then hit one bad challenge when things don’t go their way.”
The criteria for each challenge is fourfold: creativity, storytelling, technical ability and showing the judges something they haven’t seen before.
“We try to balance the challenges so each one over-indexes one of those criteria, then we cycle back and forth,” Berard said. “Every team has strength in at least one of those areas.”
The second episode that aired recently featured teams creating fun playhouses for real kittens, a sequel of sorts to a past episode focused on puppies. The shoot, Corbett said, was tough. “The kittens were all over the place,” she said. “Getting their attention and building something for them was tough.”
The pressure on the teams never lets up, Berard notes. The teams need to come up with a concept after the theme is mentioned fairly quickly because they only have typically eight to 10 hours to finish a build. During the season four debut episode, one team spent several hours waffling over what to do and that ultimately led to their elimination.
“The first challenge is always tough because the teams have to get used to the brick stock and they don’t know their place in the competition just yet,” Corbett said. “It’s easy to start to panic if others take the bricks you need. Then there’s a big clock ticking down while we and Will keep coming over to bother them.”
Arnett, an executive producer as well as host, has maintained his enthusiasm for Legos without any sign of phoning it in, the judges said, noting that he has three children. Whenever he uses his Lego Batman voice, Corbett calls it “mesmerizing.”
“You cannot get his hands off the bricks if there’s a moment we’re not filming,” Corbett said.
